Commonwealth may offer business opportunities post Brexit

Friday 12 August 2016

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Jersey Finance says one of the business opportunities the Island should pursue post Brexit is stronger links with the Commonwealth.

In an interview in this month’s edition of Connect, Richard Corrigan says Senator Philip Ozouf’s involvement with the Commonwealth Investment Council is a “really positive step."

You can read the full interview in Connect here. 

Mr Corrigan goes on to say “I’m pleased that Jersey Finance and many of our industry members have already taken up positions in those markets, and indeed have been for some time.”

But that’s not to say links with Europe and the UK should be broken. Mr Corrigan’s advice here is that “we probably need to over invest in those relationships at a governmental level in the near term, to make sure that our interests are as well catered for as possible in an eventual exit – but the big opportunity for us now is to start looking further afield…”

Commenting on a 1% fall in Finance sector GVA Mr Corrigan is stoical, whilst admitting to being “a little surprised”, he goes on say – “I don’t want you to think we’re complacent about it, you want the industry to continue to grow, to continue to offer opportunities to Islands to continue to make a bigger contribution to government tax receipts and now is an important time for that to happen in terms of our demand for public services.”

Asked whether there are problems competing with the digital sector for talented staff Mr Corrigan admits both sectors are chasing the same potential employees, but he’d rather be in the current situation with more jobs available than staff, than a situation in which he was struggling to create jobs for people.

“I’d much rather deal with a challenge of how do we get enough school leavers into the industry, enough university graduates into the industry, and bring in the necessary talent where we’ve got a skills shortage, and do that in a way that’s sympathetic to the need to create an inclusive workforce within the Island.”

He also dispels the perception that the finance industry is always asking for working licences: “you know the vast majority, 90+% of people employed in the finance sector are locally qualified, so our need for licences is a very modest one in fact.”